virtuous learning

Every fortnight I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds.

@ProfFeynman: “FEYNMAN learning strategy in THREE points:1. Continually ask “Why?”2. When you learn something, learn it to where you can explain it to a child.3. Instead of arbitrarily memorizing things, look for the explanation that makes it obvious.”

“Learning is the ability to acquire new ideas from experience and retain them as memories.” —Eric Kandel (2000 Nobel Laureate), via @charlesjennings

“It is certain in any case that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” —James Baldwin, via @UNESCO

@AralBalkan: “Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. “I wonder if @jk_rowling realised while writing this that it is the perfect warning about Silicon Valley, ‘the cloud’ and surveillance capitalism.”

@ChaosPrime: “remember, kids, if you absolutely bust your ass integrating yourself psychologically so you’re aware of what you’re doing and why and can actually act ethically, you then get to enjoy getting outcompeted by everybody whose neocortex is tasked solely with post hoc justification”

@white_owly: “Cognitive diversity makes for awkward conversation when you first meet. You’re essentially speaking different languages. Food for thought when designing a recruitment process.”

“The Harvard study, by contrast, undercuts the entire premise that justifies the fad. And that leaves companies with only one justification for moving to an open plan office: less floor space, and therefore a lower rent.

But even that justification is idiotic because the financial cost of the loss in productivity will be much greater than the money saved in rent.”